Apparatus for treating ores to sinter them



' LADQA A. s. DWIGHT.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING ORES T0 SINTER THEIVL.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 25. 19l2.

" Patented Oct 4 11922.,

2 SHEETSSHEE1 I.

(quuem coz A. S. DWIGHT.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING ORES T0 SINTER THEM.

' APPLICATION FILED MAR. 25, I9I2. L%3&3%9w Pamwn%& 001b M, W22.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- ARTHUR S. DWIGHT, 015 NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO DWIGHT & LLOYD METAL- LURGICAL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING ORES T0 SINTER THEM.

Original application filed December 23, .1907, SerialNo. 407,860. Divided and this application filed. March 25, 1912. Serial No. 685,909.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that l, ARTHUR S. DWIGHT, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Treating Ores to Sinter Them, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawm My invention relates to the art of treating ores for the purpose of sintering them, especially such ores as contain or have mixed with them a readily combustible element or substance and are of such nature that combustion may be carried on therein after an initial igniting of the mass has been ef fected; and which may, by reason of the said combustion, be sintered or have the particles thereof agglomerated into masses which are well suited for subsequent treatment in blast furnaces. I may mention as one example of an ore such as the process and apparatus herein to be described are adapted to treat, a sulfid ore in which the combustible constituent, sulfur, is in sufficient quantity to permit the ore to be readily ignited and to burn if supplied with air or other supporter of combustion; and as another example of the material to be treated, I may mention a mixture of pulverized or finely crushed ore and pulverized coal or other form of carbon.

The invention herein presented and claimed relates particularly to the means employed for effecting the initial ignition of the ore. Such means are capable of combination with any of numerous sorts of mechanisms for supporting and for carrying the ore during and after treatment, and in respect to said supporting and carrying mechanisms the present invention is not limited.

For the purpose of illustrating how the invention may be practically carried into effect, I have represented in the accompany ing drawings, the mechanism for supplying and transporting the ore, and finally delivering it in sintered masses, which is shown, described and claimed in my application for patent filed Dec. 23, 1907, original Serial Number 507.860. of which,case this application is a division, on which said application has issued Patent No. 1,027,110, dated May 21, 1912.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an ore sintering machine 'such as just referred to f p and with which the improvements herein pregented and claimed are adapted to be use Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of part of .the apparatus illustrating the igniters.

Fig. 3 is a cross section showing one of the pallets or ore carrying elements and part of the suction box.

Fig. 4: is a longitudinal sectional view of a part of the apparatus taken on the line l[V--l[V of Fig; 5.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view.

For the purposes hereof it is suflicient to note that, in the drawings, A represents an air suction box, over or across the open end of which travel the ore-supportin cars or pallets B, these constituting individual elements of a carrier for the ore. Each of these elements carries one or more grate sections 0, suitably supported, and is mounted upon wheels D adapted to travel upon tracks or guides, shown at F, F, F

K indicates a hopper or feeder which is supplied With ore, initially, and from which it is delivered in charges or in a stream to the cars or pallets B, so that each element supports a thin pervious bed or layer of the ore.

After the ore has been placed upon its support or carrier, it is ignited at its open or exposed surface by the temporary application thereto of flame or burning products which are so regulated and controlled as to subject a relatively wide area of the surface of the ore bed to a simultaneous treatment for ignition. After this temporary application of the fiame or burning products, which is maintained sufficiently long for perfect ignition, the ore is subjected to a more or less extended and continuous action of the air currents which are induced to pass through the body of ore by the air moving mechanism U connected with the air box or chamber A. In operating with the mechanismillustrated in the drawing, the ore carrier, formed of the units designated B, is slowly moved across the open end of the air chamber A, the length of such open end, and the speed at which the carrier moves determining the length of time when the ore is subjected to the action of the air currents passing through the ore body, during which time such internal combustion takes place within the ore mass as to cause the desired sintering thereof, and the desulfurizing, when a sulfid ore is being treated. At the end of the track section F, which is the section adjacent to the open end of the wind box or air chamber A, and which, as shown, preferably extends some distance beyond the end of the Wind box, the ore carriers pass to the downwardly curved track section or guide, F, with which. the wheels of the pallets or individual ore carriers engage and by which their course is directed. From this part of the guideway the pallets or cars move to the inclined and returning-part of the track, F along which they travel in inverted position. At H there are lifting and power transmitting wheels, adapted to engage with the pallets or cars and carry them upward to the track section F, and then by a pushing action impart for ward travel to them during their next cycle. The wheels H are rotated by the belt T connected with their shaft.

At U there is an air forcing apparatus, here shown as a suction fan, connected, by a trunk or duct J, with the air box A, and adapted to exhaust the air from the latter, causing currents of air to pass downward through the ore on the pallets or cars, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1.

The means which are herein shown for igniting the ore are adapted for burning gasolene, petroleum, or other similar combustible fluid, and preferably comprise a pair of spray burners, I, so arranged that the flames and. burning products issuing therefrom, are applied to and caused to pass over andacross the upper exposed surface of the mass of ore to be treated. The burners I are preferably disposed diametrically opposite each other as represented in Fig. 2 .The burners are supplied through a pipe, I, connected with any'suitable source of supply and are provided with the regulating valves z, 3'. It will be apparent that by apparatus such as I have described. a broad and intense flame is caused to be passed over and across a sufliciently wide area of the ore at one and the same instant of time to insure perfect ignition, and that the flame is drawn into intimate contact with the surface of the ore, and somewhat into the body thereof, by the suction apparatus connected with the air box A. In these respects the igniter herein described and illustrated differs from igniting apparatus which I have illustrated in earlier patents of mine, for instance, in Patent 916,391 of March 23, 1909, wherein I show an igniter consisting of a perforated gas pipe extending across the apparatus supporting the bed of ore and arranged to direct small open jets of gas against the surface of the ore along a narrow line.

The present-apparatus not only possesses the advantage of subjecting a comparatively large area of the exposed body of ore to the igniting flame at one and the same instance, but is adapted to be used in localities where gas is not easily obtainable and where, therefore, an apparatus of the sort illustrated in my aforesaid patent could not be used to advantage.

By means of the regulating valves, i, the volume and intensity of the flames issuing from the burners can be varied to suit the different conditions met with in treating ores; and moreover by means thereof the flames can be temporarily entirely cut off or so reduced as to have no igniting elfect upon the ore, and then again increased so as to project across a fresh surface of the ore to be ignited, this latter method of manipulation being desirable where the ore is of such character as to be quickly ignited, and hence requiring but a relatively very short application of the igniting flames.

It will be seen that in the apparatus shown there I body of the oreand the igniting burners, as well as movement of the flames that issue from the burners across and over the body of the ore.

I have not in the drawings illustrated in detail the construction of the spray burners I, as they-may ,be of any well known kind adapted to the use described.

In using the apparatus shown the ore carrier is slowly moved by the wheels H, and the elements thereof are filled from the hopper K, each receiving a relatively thin layer which is uniformly spread upon the grate C. After the ore has been properly deposited it is ignited at its upper surface by the means already described, and, after being thoroughly ignited the play of the hot igniting particles upon the surface of the ore is discontinued, either by reason of relative separating motion between the ignited ore mass and burners; or by movement ofthe flaming particles and hot products of combustion over, across, and relative to the ore, asby the intermittent shutting off and admitting of the fuel supply to the burners. The ore being once thoroughly ignited at its surface, a uniform combustion transversely through the ore mass is caused to take place by currents of air which are induced, by the air -moving apparatus U, to pass through the bed of ore, the combustion being sufficiently active to insure sintering or agglomerating of the particles of ore. The apparatus is so operated that a sintering of the entire mass of ore supported by any pallet or carrying element is completed at about the time or shortly before it arrives is relative movement between the at the place of discharge. The manner of breaking up the sintered ore masses and dis charging them, and causing the sintered cakes to separatethemselves from the grates or perforated supports as the pallets are inverted, need not be described in this case, as these operations do not form a part of the invention to which the present case has particular reference.

I do not in this case claim the mechanism for supporting and conveying the ore and for causing air currents to pass through the ore While being supported and conveyed which is illustrated and described in this application, as such apparatus is claimed in my aforesaid Patent #1,027,110. The said mechanism in so far as it is a conveying apparatus capable of use. for other purposes than in the roasting, sintering and similar treatment of ore, is also claimed by me in my Patent No. 1,027,111 dated May 21, 1912.

Neither do l in this application claim a process of sintering a thin bed of ore by igniting a wide area of the surface thereof at one and the same instant of time by a broad mass of flaming particles such as is produced by the igniter herein illustrated and then sintering or agglomerating the mass, as such process has been made the subject matter of an application filed by me on the 8th day of May, 1912, Serial No. 695,882 as a division of this case and therefore also a division of my aforesaid application 407,860.

.What I claim is:

1. An apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, comprising a pervious support for a thin bed of ore, means for causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the ore and its support throughout the entire agglomerating or sintering operation, means for igniting the material by causing flaming particles and highly heated products of combustion to be temporarily passed above and across the upper exposed surface of the supported bed of ore.

2. An apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, comprising a pervious support for a thin bed of ore, means for causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the ore and its support throughout the entire agglomeratingor sintering operation, and an igniter comprising a liquid fuel burner arranged to temporarily project a broad mass of flaming particles above and across the bed of ore tothoroughly ignite the ore at the surface.

3. ltn an apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, the combination of a perforated support for a pervious bed of ore,

means for causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the said ore bed and its support throughout the entire agglomerating or sintering operation and an igniter comprising a fluid hydrocarbon burner arranged to temporarily project a broad and intense mass of flaming particles over and across the upper exposed surface of the ore, which is drawn into intimate contact with a considerable area of the ore by the supporter of combustion caused to pass through the ore'bed.

4. lln an apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, the combination of a perforate support for a thin pervious bed of ore,

means for causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the ore throughout the entire agglomerating or sintering operation, and means for igniting the ore at its upper surface comprising a pair of spray burners located diametrically opposite each other near the opposite edges of the supported bed of ore.

5. An apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, comprising movable perforated supports for the ore to be treated, means for moving and directing them in a prescribed path. a stationary burner located at the side of the path followed by the supports, and arranged to project a relatively broad mass of flaming fuel above and across the surface of the ore as it is moved, by the supports, past the burner, whereby the ore is temporarily subjected to the said burning fuel. and means for causing air to pass through the ore and its supports while being ignited and also after the ore has been moved beyond the area of the flaming igniting fuel.

(3. In an apparatus for agglomer-ating or sintering ore, the combination of a series of perforated holders andsupports for the ore to be treated. means for moving and directing the said holders, along a prescribed path. stationary burners arranged to project relatively broad masses of flaming fuel over and across the surface of the ore as it is moved past the said burners, and means for causing air to be passed transversely through the ore mass While it is subjected to the said flaming fuel from the burners and also after it has passed beyond the area of the said flaming fuel.

lln testimony whereof ll affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ARTHUR S. DWIGHT. Witnesses RICHARD L. LLOYD, 'LoUIs H. HYDE.

DISCLAIMER l,433,34=9.-Arthur S. Dwight, New York, N. Y. APPARATUS FOR TREATING ORES 'ro SINTER THEM. Patent dated October 24, 1922. Disclaimer filed October 21, 1931, by the assignee, Dwight ct' Lloyd Sintering Company, Inc.

Hereby enters this disclaimer to claims 1, 2, and 3 of said Letters Patent, which are in the following Words, to-wit:

1. An apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, comprising a pervious support for a thin bed of ore, means for causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the ore and its support throughout the entire agglomerating or sintering operation, means for igniting the material by causing flaming particles and highly heated products of combustion to be temporarily passed above and across the upper exposed surface of the supported bed of ore.

2. An apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, comprising a pervious support for a thin bed of ore, meansfor causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the ore and its support throughout the entire agglomerating or sintering operation, and an igniter comprising a liquid fuel burner arranged to temporarily project a broad mass of flaming particles above and across the-bed of ore to thoroughly ignite the ore at the surface.

3. In an apparatus for agglomerating or sintering ore, the combination of a perforated support for a pervious bed of ore, means for causing a supporter of combustion to pass through the said ore bed and its support throughout the entire agglomerating or sintering operation and an igniter comprising a fluid hydrocarbon burner arranged to temporarily project a broad and intense mass of flaming particles over and across the upper exposed surface of the ore, which is drawn into intimate contact with a considerable area of the ore by the supporter of combustion caused to pass through the ore bed.

[Ofiicial Gazette November 17, 1.931 .1 

